In power over Ethernet (PoE) technology, power sourcing equipment (PSE) may provide power over a standard twisted-pair Ethernet cable to one or more powered devices (PD) in an Ethernet network. This technology may be useful for powering network devices when it is undesirable to supply power through a separate connection. For example, an IP telephone may be connected to an Ethernet cable that transmits data and provides power without requiring a second wire to provide power via an electrical outlet, for example. The IEEE 802.3 standard specifies requirements for PoE devices. Over time, the complexity of PDs has increased. With this increase in complexity, the power required by these PDs has also increased.